Table 3 HealthLit4Kids alignment to Ophelia Principles

1. Outcomes focused

Program Logic model (Fig. 1) describes short term, intermediate and long term outcomes. Program goals;

1. Health Literacy becomes a commonly used and understood term in all Tasmanian schools. “A Health literacy responsive school looks like, feels like, does……”

2. Equip and empower children with HL competencies necessary for their health and wellbeing.

3. Adapt HeLLOTas Tool for use in schools.

4. Tool/Mechanism to measure/document health literacy profile of children < 10 years (co-designed with its target group).

5. Develop and populate OeR with children’s interpretations of health and health literacy.

2. Equity driven

Design is to ensure all children in the school setting are involved in discussions. A Universal approach to health literacy whereby health literacy targets all (not just those who are assessed as having low health literacy). All children despite social determinants or parents’ health literacy or health attitudes are given an opportunity to develop their own health literacy knowledge, skills and attitudes. This responds to a basic Human right and the UNCRC rights of the child.

3. Co-designed approach

At each stage (facilitated by workshops) all stakeholders/characters are involved in the development of agreed definitions, assessments, action plan and design of individual interventions.

4. Needs- diagnostic approach

Self-assessment checklist for school level health literacy responsiveness and design of tasks taking into account context, classroom, curriculum requirements, individuals and resources.

5. Driven by local wisdom

Agreed action plan focus and individual classroom activities are by teacher’s knowledge of childrens’ knowledge, skills and attitudes and the appropriate level of health literacy intervention their cohort will manage academically.

6. Sustainable

Action plan becomes part of annual cyclical review process and embedded in the school strategy and curriculum. Workshop participation and education on health literacy principles and its relevant to school context empowers teachers to implement new materials and revisit this topic with confidence in the future.

7. Responsive

The approach to co-design has portability to any context and enables diverse groups of individuals and schools to apply the same approach and potentially derive completely different goals, action plans and individual classroom activities- in response to the local context.

8. Systematically applied

Design is purposefully sequential to capture the built knowledge over time. Each stage of the Ophelia process and its corresponding workshop ensures a systematic approach to a whole of community solution to Health Literacy.